April has been full of bullet journaling, music, food, workouts, and writing stuffs – at least on YouTube. The rest of April…well…she’s been tough on me. However, May has opened her arms to welcome me warmly. I am excited to start this month.

So, anyways, here’s my strange list of YouTube videos.

1 hour of Yoda – Rockin’ and Rollin’

This video grew on me. My husband played it for its full hour, and I found myself bopping along, writing. It helps grading, too.

Chris Baty: “No Plot? No Problem” | Talks at Google

I’m prepping for my NanoWriMo July Camp (outlining currently), and Chris Baty is the creator of NanoWriMo. He makes some good points about the creative process.

I’ve featured her here on this blog before. I love her personality and her workouts.

BROWNIES WHILE CUTTING: Low-Carb Protein Brownies

These look so good. I seriously want to try them. I typically don’t watch male health YouTubers because…well…I’m a female, and we need different things, but this guy grew on me fast. I watched a slew of his videos after this one.

Inside Amy Schumer – Last F**kable Day – Uncensored

One of my students wrote her mammoth research paper on agism and the how they differed for males and females. This was spot on for her argument. Plus, these ladies are hilarious.

Doodles with Circles : Harry Potter (Part 1)

I love doodles. I love Harry Potter. Enough said.

5 Days of Minimalism | Try Living With Lucie

One of my goals for the summer is to clear out some of the clutter in my house. As an anti-consumerist (until I walk into a bookstore), I love the idea of minimalism. But I have a lot of stuff. This gave me some nice ideas on my de-cluttering mission.

How To Build A Story | Brainstorming (1 of 5)

I love this chick. I watched all five of her videos on outlining and brainstorming, and I even took notes! Because I’m a dork. I’ve found it helpful in developing my outline for that NanoWriMo project I’m working on.

How to Defend against a Gun to the Face | Krav Maga Defense

So…I write a lot of fight scenes, and although I have no gun fights in my books…currently…I found this helpful. Always good to know how to defend oneself, too.

BONUS:

My press, Transmundane Press, has their first YouTube video. Take a look!

March has been full of music, recipes, and bullet journaling…and well, you know, writing, too. Lots of that. This fact makes me happy. So here’s my odd amalgamation of YouTube videos.

NASA Space Sounds

I have a penchant for space stuff. Super Earths, other solar systems, galaxies and black holes, and how immense the universe is.

DNCE – Toothbrush (Audio)

I love listening to this song as I write. I get to bopping.

Halsey – Colors

I love the story of this music video. Love the older man, who used to be on a day-time soap opera. Yummy. Plus, I adore her voice.

Tiny Art show Final || Witches

These are super cool and super cute. I wish I could draw like this. Practice makes perfect, right?

What I Eat In A Day | Banana Smoothies + Homemade Chai Tea

I love Sarah and her views on life, food, health, and hormones.

As a side note, I make this smoothie. Every Day. I put the ice in first, use cow’s milk or coconut milk, both taste good (1 cup). And I add peanut butter. Other than that, I follow her recipe. It tastes like chocolate pudding. Sometimes I put in two bananas and a whole avocado for a creamier, more filling, but higher calorie meal. Mmm. Also, sometimes I put in the macha powder, sometimes not. Both taste good.

Quiche Cupcakes Recipe ft. Donal Skehan

I love SORTEDfood. I’ve binge-watched so many of their videos this month. I also love Donal Skehan. Two-for-one. I just tried this one, and oh my shit are they amazing.

Bullet Journal Flip Through

I started my bullet journal on the sixth this month, and I am obsessed. I love lists and doodling and quotes and tracking stuff and this is the perfect journal method for me because it’s completely customizable. It might take up a bit of my time, but it’s enjoyable. I might post pictures of mine next month. I have a cute little frog. We’ll see.

What it’s like to have a Deformity…. A Discussion on Difference | Ep. 2: StupidQuestionsWithLeena

I found this both entertaining and informative. These two made me laugh, and at the same time, I checked some of my privilege (now PC Principal is stuck in my head.) Especially since I tend to compliment people, and it’s not always taken well.

Tiny Boesner haul and can we just please talk about paper? ~Frannerd

I love Fran. I feel like we’re equally nerdy about our own passions, but we certainly both love paper…and coffee…and making faces. Look at that sexy spine!

Midori – Weekly Update –WEEK 30

This is another type of bullet journaling system. She has more doodles and decorations and a more condensed tracking method, but it generates ideas.

And as a side note, just a reminder that DISTORTED is on sale for 1.99 until Friday. Grab your copy now.

I’ve lived in New Orleans off and on for over 21 years. It sings to me in a way no other place ever has. When Katrina flooded the Big Easy, my heart broke. Our country’s most unique city, rich with centuries of culture and history, submerged in a few short hours. People begging for rescue atop homes jutting from the murky water—an American Venice, tragic and romantic, flooded the television sets around the world, and I wondered if I’d get home again. Sometimes a place is more than a place, and I began wondering, should the swamp reclaim the area, who—and what—would remain? Would anyone ever come back? One of my best friends lives in Houma, just south of Nola, and she works for one of the local haunted house here, the House of Shock. Her normal character is a voodoo queen, and so I took some cues from that. This story is really a gift to her.

Did you have to do any research? If so, what kind? What did you learn?

Geographical. New Orleans is shaped like a bowl, so some parts of the city are on higher ground than others. Watching videos that recreated the flooding, the fallout, the looting. I examined airboats, how they operated and what not.

Can you tell me a little bit about your protagonist?

He’s an expert airboat pilot. Got a lover back on solid ground, and he hopes these runs will afford him a family. This is his first time raiding the city for supplies, and he’s nervous, but his youth also breeds cockiness.

Tell me about the setting you chose and how it influences your work.

New Orleans is a living, organic monster. She decides who she’ll embrace and who she’ll spit out. Music, drink, crime, culture, food, ghosts, voodoo, murder—it can be a little much for some. The city not only influences my work, but every aspect of my life. It made me the creature I am today and continues shaping my life.

What would you like readers to know about “Diluvium”?

It’s a wasteland story, a smaller piece to a larger world that’s come unhinged. Several other authors are currently chipping away at different regions (and different points in time) of this world—mine just happens to be soggy. Maybe we’ll see all these cataclysmic tales come together someday…

Living and creating in New Orleans, Louisiana, Anthony S. Buoni haunts swamps and bayous along the Gulf of Mexico, writing, editing, producing, and lecturing about his craft. A practicing pagan, he’s responsible for the BETWEEN THERE anthologies as well as his screenplay-novel, CONVERSION PARTY, available through PULPWOOD PRESS. Recently, he’s co-edited and co-produced two exciting anthologies with Alisha Costanzo with their independent imprint, TRANSMUNDANE PRESS: DISTORTED: vol 1 and UNDERWATER: vol 1.

In the past, he produced the underground zine MEOW and the illustrated horror rag OUTRÉ from MEOW PRESS, and his work has appeared in WATERFRONT LIVING, NORTH FLORIDA NOIR, and SMALL HAPPY. Currently writing a New Orleans monster novel as well as putting the final edits on novels featuring ghosts, zombies, and a café between life and death filled with secrets and philosophy. His next book, a collection of dark short stories, is due for publication in early 2016.

When not writing, Anthony is a Bourbon Street bartender and underground musician and DJ, drawing down the moon with new wave, trance, and melancholy tunes. Other interests include film, gardening, comic books, and playing video games with his son, Fallon.

Today in class, I wore my pancho of a sweater with these wings. Flapping them in front of my kids, I tell them it reminds me of a manatee…

Let that sink in.

Oops. What I meant is manta ray.

Yeah. Sometimes, words are hard.

Oh well.

2016 continues on the way 2015 did. So I let it go. What’s the point in taking myself too seriously? Life’s too short for that. And I have too much to do, like edit a new 500+ page novel, read and accept a butt load of short stories for my AHEA anthology, and of course, I’m getting ready for the UNDERWATER anthology to come out on February 29th.

Onto the videos.

Survival Lilly: My SUPER Shelter Completed:

This shelter looks like the type of shit I need to learn how to build. If you don’t know this about me, one of my biggest fears is the zombie apocalypse (which in my house is code for any phenomenon that undoes our modern lifestyle). She’s got good tutorials on how to survive outside.

Plus you get to see her pup rolling around in leaves and dirt.

Sarahs Day: Eat on Low Carb Day | Grocery Haul | Body Update:

One, the salad in this video looks amaze-balls (to quote Cartman). I’ve watched all of this chica’s videos. There’s something so genuine about her that makes me want to watch shat she eats in a day. Bizarre, right?

I love her views on food, fitness, and life.

Hard Spell Justin Gustainis Book Trailer:

Looking at book trailers to imitate (because that’s one way to learn an unfamiliar art form. Haters.), I found my favorite former professor and a trailer for his amazing satirical-urban-fantasy-crime noveling. Simple design, awesome voice, clean hook.

Besides, the book was rather awesome, too. I pity you for not having this man teach your class. That’s all I’m saying.

Dramatic Readings by Kiera Cass | The Selection Series:

I want to do one of these.

My husband told me no.

Still…what do you think?

DRUNK YOGA with Ali Spagnola – Hip Openers:

KymNonStop is one of my favorite fitness personalities. This is how I feel when I do yoga generally. I’m getting better at it, but yeah, this me doing yoga. Pretty much.

I adored this movie. It sums the movie up pretty well. This is adulthood, and welcome to it. Be true to yourself not others’ ideas on what you need in your life.

Justin Bieber – Sorry (PURPOSE: The Movement):

Hell has frozen over. Justin Bieber has a song I like. Three actually. Granted, he probably doesn’t write them himself, so I don’t feel awful admitting to this guilty pop pleasure.

Still, my toes are frostbitten.

What I like about this video is the dancing and the odd melodies in the chorus. Fun song. Fun video. Talented girls. What’s more to say?

HAM & MUSHROOM PIE RECIPE – SORTED:

Super simple and easy recipe for a “proper, manly pie.” I love the sense of humor these guys have and how fast they freaking talk. I want to make this recipe. I haven’t yet, but I will. “Trust me,” as the man with the rue says.

This is NOT human flesh. It’s the flesh of a pig.

Booty Pop // PIIT:

I love love love this girl. Not only do her workouts kick my ass, but she’s always upbeat, and she’s honest about her flaws. Even role models struggle with their images. Either way, this workout had me wobbling. The struggle is my thing in a workout. If I’m not struggling, I’m not working hard enough. Rock this one. It’s short.

Simon Sinek – Start with Why – TED Talk Short Edited:

I love learning stuff, especially when I can apply it right away. This works for my business, for my writing, for my teaching methods, and for how to analyze properly.

I’ll be implementing this guys’ ideas across my brands soon. Will you?

Bonus Video:

Once I had my list together, this one popped up on my history, and frankly, I couldn’t deny the impact this video had on my 2016. I love Harry Potter, I love Severus Snape, and I love Alan Rickman. This video gave me the feels – the serious feels.

Hey, y’all. So, I liked making my top ten list last month, so I thought I’d make another one. I seem to find a slew of varied videos, and I like how my list looks. Most of these I’ve watched more than once, and in some cases, more than a hundred times.

You might notice that I like to include TedTalks, cartoons, drawing, comedy, and food along with my music. This month, I watched a weblog series remake of Emma by Jane Austen, so I have a casting video in here, too. (I know. I’m a weirdo. Deal with it.)

There’s also a dance video in here, and it reminds me of an upcoming character, Lawson (both with his moves and his general look).